Bleak tourism year forecast for Alaska

FAIRBANKS - State tourism officials are warning that 2009 could be a bleak year for Alaska's tourism industry, with some projecting decreases in business of about 30 percent. If that scenario plays out, Alaska businesses could suffer severely, they projected.
"Certainly, it is looking to be a very potentially scary summer," said Dave Worrell, spokesman for the Alaska Travel Industry Association. "Optimistically, I would like to believe we would be down slightly. Pessimistically, we could be down dramatically. It really depends on what the economy does."

A 10 percent decrease wouldn't surprise him in the least, but declines could be as high as 25 to 30 percent, he said. That doesn't bode well for the state economy, with the average visitor spending almost $1,000 while in Alaska, enabling 40,000 full-time equivalent jobs. In 2008, that spending translated to a $1.7 billion boost to the state economy.

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